This morning - 5 May at 1015, I was astounded to stumble upon a breeding
plumaged Palm Warbler on the Yakima Training Center. I initially saw it
foraging in low sagebrush in open terrain with a gravelly substrate 1 km n.
of "Range Central" and 100 m south of Selah Creek. Several times it
descended to the ground and behaved exactly as a pipit: bobbing its body and
tail and uttering a liquid "seep." Its undertail coverts were bright yellow
as was its throat, but its breast and belly were lime-green with diffuse
streakings. I believe it was a "western" bird, based on the NAT GEO guide.

Other birds nearby included 4 or 5 Orange-crowned Warblers, several
Ruby-crowned Kinglets and a number of White-crowned parrows - also foraging
in these low shrubs.

This was a Yakima County first - # 297 for the county and also a first for
me in Washington - somehow the coastal birds have always eluded me when I've
been at the favored Ocean Shores site in fall.

I believe there was another report of a Palm Warbler in the Northwest within
the last week. Does anyone have details of this sighting? Also, doies anyone
have a handle on this species status in the spring in the NW? Any info would
help a burning curiosity!

Andy Stepniewski
Wapato WA